Spending Time with the Madsens!

Ohmigoodness.  Is it me, or is it taking forever getting all of these Utah Trip posts up?  It's me.  And it is taking forever. 

But I have decent excuses!  1) Getting the kids and everything else ready to go back to school, 2) Canning a bajillion pints of marinara sauce, salsa, chili sauce, and jalapeno jelly because the garden is going crazy, and 3) I just got called to be the 2nd counselor in our ward's Young Women's presidency, and it's taking a bit of time to get all caught up and everything. (And holy stinkin' cow, callings with the youth take a lot of time!  Not that I'm complaining, it's just that I'm surprised - and impressed.  I had some GREAT leaders when I was a youth, and now I really appreciate all that they did!)

Anywho.  Onwards, onwards.

Lest you think we we ignored the Madsen side of the family on our trip, we did not.  We just happened to do a lot of activities with them where I either couldn't take pictures (like go to the temple) or just forgot to take pictures (because I'm a dingbat).

What did Cole like about being at Grandpa and Grandma Madsen's?  The watermelon!  Uncle Dane kept giving him HUGE pieces, and he would eat them all!  (We should have made Uncle Dane change the subsequent diapers.  Gross.)

Miss Tessie luurrrvvedd uncle Dane.

And Uncle Dane loved her, too.

Or maybe it was just his phone that she loved.  It's hard to tell.  What's not hard to tell is who the favored grandchild is - the glossy 8x10 of Josh as a baby in the background kinda gives it away.  (Not really - we just though it was funny that such a random picture of Josh was there!)

We got to spend and afternoon at Katrina (Lance's older sister) and Larry's (her husband) house to celebrate Viggo (Lance's Dad) and Amanda's (Katrina's daughter/our niece) birthdays. (Parentheses, parentheses.)  We ate lots of yummy food and played fun games and talked and laughed.

Cole mainly got wet and made messes.  He's good at that.  It's his thing.

More game playing.  I don't know how, but I'm pretty sure Lance cheats at cribbage.  Because he ALWAYS WINS.

Josh whined and begged and pleaded to be put in the hammock.  Then he whined and begged and pleaded to be helped out.

Time for a little dominoes action.

And a little bocce.  If there's anything we learned on this trip, it's that you can't really play bocce with Cole around.  He has no qualms about stealing the balls and then throwing them at you.  Or his baby sister.

By this point Cole had lost his clothes and was perfectly happy running around in a diaper.  He discovered some little flags, which kept him occupied for a while.

Then he discovered that standing on this big rock while holding the flags was pretty fun.

And then he discovered that jumping off the rock with the two flags was even more fun!

Joshie and Spence enjoyed playing on the Slip-n-slide.

They also enjoyed whining and crying and fighting with each other, but I didn't get a picture of that.  I was too busy yelling at them to knock it off.

Josh REALLY wanted some of Grandpa Viggo's Whoppers, but he wouldn't ask for them nicely.  He begged and pleaded for a good 30 minutes, but Grandpa (much to his credit) would not give in.  Josh finally asked politely and got a few.  Stubborn child!

What do you give a man who is turning 65?  A fresh, homemade strawberry/rhubarb pie, that's what!  (And maybe a little advice about wearing hats...)

Cousin Amanda was nice enough to let Tess check out her phone.  It was so funny to see her playing away with it.  You could tell that she had been watching Amanda text with it, and she was sure that that's what she was doing while pressing all of those buttons.

At the end of the evening I decided it would be a good idea to get some group pictures.  *Note to self: next time, take the pictures at the beginning of the evening when the kids are better behaved!*

As you can see, the kiddos were not really cooperating.  Here are a few of the Grandparents Madsen with all of their grandchildren.  (At least Amanda and Trevor were behaving!)

 

 

Then I decided that we should get a picture of the original Madsen family: Katrina, Lance and Dane, with Joy and Viggo.  (They all behaved extremely well!)

 Then we had a friend of the family take one of the whole lot of us.  This was the best of the bunch.  Oy.

First Day of School - 2012!

Hooray for the first day of school!

 The first day of third grade.  Just look at him - Spencer's an old pro at this school stuff.

The first day of Kindergarten.

Josh is not an old pro at this.  He wanted to misbehave and wouldn't let me take a normal picture of him.

 Ironically, this is normal Joshie behavior.

Just look at those Mario t-shirts.  *cringe*  But the boys loved them, so that's what's important, right?

Another failed picture attempt.  At this point I was a little nervous about how Josh would act when I dropped him off at school.  Earlier he had refused to get dressed and was hiding under his comforter.  I asked him if we should say a prayer to help make him brave and he agreed to that.  (Obviously, this helped!)

There we go!  Hooray for the first day of Kindergarten!

 

Spencer heading off to the bus stop.  Cole must have forgotten last year's routine already because he was quite concerned when Spencer left.  He refused to come inside because he was "waiting for Spencer". 

Josh wanted me to take him to school, I think mainly because he was concerned about how he would find his classroom.  He saw all the kids get off the bus and saw that there were lots of teachers there to help the Kindergarteners find their classrooms.  I took him into his class, helped him get situated, gave him a hug and kiss good-bye... and just about lost it. 

By this point he wasn't paying attention to me anymore and was ready to start the day, so I quickly left so he wouldn't see me.  I'm not generally very emotional in situations like this (although, apparently, I am), so my tears took me by surprise.  You'd think I'd have gotten it all out of my system with Spencer, right?  Nope.  I wasn't sad or scared or anything; just emotional.  Worried maybe?  Hoping he was prepared enough, and that he wouldn't be scared or hurt or sad.  

Hey, it's a big deal to leave a kid at school all day.  I mean, you take care of him pretty much 24/7 for 5+ years and then all of a sudden you entrust some basic stranger to take care of your baby for eight hours a day, five days a week.  That's a pretty big deal and very worthy of getting emotional over, that's all I'm sayin'.

*sniff*sniff*

2nd Annual Madsen Family Back-To-School Night

If you remember (and I'm sure you do, because I know you're all obsessively remembering every detail about my family) (ha!), last year we started a new tradition in our family: back-to-school night.  We have a special dinner, talk about the upcoming school year, and then have a special Family Home Evening lesson where we introduce and talk about our new school year theme.

If you remember (and I know you do!), last year I took lots of pictures of the event.  But this year?  Ah, um, not so much. 

Three.  I took exactly three pictures.  And they were all before we even started. As in, this afternoon as I decorated and got things ready while the kids were at someone else's house.

In my defense, they are pretty awesome pictures.  Okay, no, not really.  But also in my defense, I spent the hour before dinner at the school's open house, filling out a bajillion forms and dropping off the 239 school supply items I had to buy for each child. 

It was a little busy.

So we sat down to dinner and the kids were all super excited and bouncy because a) I made one of their favorite meals - spaghetti and meatballs (with homemade marinara sauce, made from tomatoes from my garden, thank you very much), and b) Spencer and Josh's lunch boxes were at the table and they knew that there was a surprise inside.

They could barely sit through the prayer before they tore them open to discover Mario Brothers t-shirts for the first day of school.  SCORE!

*Side Note: I feel the need to explain that I am not really a big fan of t-shirts with cartoons and figures and junk all over them.  I can't help it.  But my kids are.  A lot.  And although I used to try to get a good polo or other cute shirt for the first day of school, I have given up and now let them wear a new t-shirt that will make them very happy.  Because is it really worth the fight to get them into a shirt they don't really want to wear and thus make them grouchy for their first day of school?  No.  It's better to let them wear some ugly cartoon t-shirt and have them be happy and not mad at momma.  So I'll just have to swallow my t-shirt snobbery tomorrow while I take their first day of school pictures.*

We had a rather wild dinner, followed by an even more wild clean-up.  This, in turn, was followed by some rather lengthy time-outs for Spencer and Josh.  I think they were just a bit too excited.

Lance gave a good lesson about the 2,000 stripling warriors and how they were brave and courageous because they had strong testimonies of the gospel.  We then introduced this year's theme:

Lance and I both felt that this would be a good theme for the year, as the boys are in particular need of courage lately.  Spencer has always been something of a scaredy-cat when it comes to trying new things. (And it's usually silly little things - not big things, as you'll see in later posts.)  And Josh needs all sorts of courage when it comes to new places and situations.  Heaven only knows how he'll act tomorrow when I take him to school.

Did the lesson and theme sink in?  Will they be strong and courageous throughout the school year?  Heaven only knows. But it's a good way to start the year.

By the way, I'm still trying to decide which sign I like best to put up on our wall.  What do you think?

Timpanogos Caves

Several months ago I decided that it was time for Spencer and Josh to hike to Timpanogos Caves.  I had fond memories of doing this a couple times when I was a kid and I wanted them to have the same experiences.  I was pretty sure that they were physically ready - but wasn't sure how they would actually behave during the hike.  I had taken them on several "hikes" around Lafayette during the summer and you would have thought they were death marches, what with all the complaining I received.  Sheesh.

Here we are at the start of the hike.  (Dad is taking the picture.)  Cole and Tess weren't invited because no one wanted to haul them up the mountain.  Plus, could you imagine Cole climbing up a mountain that is prone to rock slides?  We all would have died.  Or Cole in a cave where you aren't supposed to touch anything?  We would have been banned for life.

Anywho.

From left to right: Dane, Susie, Lance, Josh, me, Kevin, and Spencer.  Ready to hike 1.5 miles and gain 1,092 feet in elevation!

Spencer and Josh started off really strong.  They were actually really good about hiking up.  And it was the perfect day for a hike - overcast with scattered light showers.  And since it was Utah, it wasn't humid at all.

Aren't the BYU shirts awesome?  (The answer is Yes.  Yes, they are.)

I was impressed with how well the boys did.   They were excited and hardly ever complained.  We had to stop quite a bit, but that wasn't surprising considering we were literally SIX THOUSAND feet higher in elevation than what we're used to in Lafayette!

Grandpa is an expert hiker, with the perfect clothes, a camelback canteen, and pockets full of Everlasting Gobstoppers and Pork Jerky.  Josh tried sneaking a snack once we got to the top.

We started the cave tour, and the boys were entranced.  Especially Spencer - he had all sorts of questions and comments for the park ranger.  In fact, there were points where we had to tell Spence to stop talking.  (If you know Spencer at all you're probably not too surprised by this.)

My 6'5" baby brother had some difficulties getting through parts of the cave.  I helped him out with a rousing rendition of "Tall guy in a little cave", ala "Tommy Boy".  I'm pretty sure he appreciated this.

 
Shmance and I in the cave.

What is it about caves that makes people want to take pictures?  I mean, they are super cool looking, but even as you take the picture you just know that it won't look as great as the real thing.  It's just too dark.  No matter, I took approximately 397 cave pictures, which I will now show.

Kidding.
 

The "heart" of Timp.  They used to have a red light behind this formation that really made it look like a heart.  And then the ranger would also tell about the legend of Timpanogos.  But not our ranger.  He was kinda lame.

Look up at that cave bacon!  (Spencer's new favorite joke: Q: Where does cave bacon come from?  A: From cave pigs!)

No, Kevin, No!  Don't touch the cave!

Okay, so a thousand years ago when Lance and I were engaged, we hiked up Timp with some friends of ours.  These friends took a picture of us somewhere during the hike that turned out to be a pretty great picture.  This was unusual because Lance and I are notorious for taking bad pictures together.  I wanted to recreate that shot during the hike, but couldn't remember the exact spot.  So we took lots of pictures.  

Well, I know the original didn't have kids in it...

Looking down into the valley.

Awesome smile, Maren.  (I blame Josh.)

Was the original picture here?

Or here?

Well, it hardly matters because I can't find the original one.  I know it's in this house somewhere, but could only devote about 5 minutes in looking for it.

It was a fun day, and I'm really glad we got to do it.  We'll have to hike it again in five or six years when Tessa and Cole are old enough to join us.  (Maybe I'll have found that photograph by then...)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Happy birthday to the most exciting Grandpa ever!  

We love you, dad!

(In case you're wondering, Josh and Cole are playing with Grandpa's iPod and iPad - thus making him the coolest Grandpa ever, too.)