Flashback Sunday: Lorelai, July 2009

Nathan here! In 2009, we started a journal for Lorelai and Celeste, in which Adrianne and I could record the cute and heartwarming things our daughters did.  However, the journal entries stopped rather suddenly once we started keeping this blog.  In a very real sense, then, these journals were the precursors to Grinnin' Barretts.  Every Sunday, I'll be recording a few pages from these journals. 

The following were taken from the journal we kept on Lorelai's behalf:

June 30, 2009: 

[Adrianne]: Today, Lorelai had a PB&J for lunch, on our muligrain bread.  She saw a particularly large grain fragment in the bread, pulled it out, and said "Look, Mama, a sandwich seed!" So cute! Now if only I had a pot to plant it in, we could have a sandwich plant, and we'd have all the PB&J we could eat.

Also, talking about our upcoming trip to Colorado, I showed her pictures online of the boat rides at Heritage Square.  She wanted a boat ride IMMEDIATELY. As in today. When I told her it would have to be "later" (i.e., in a few weeks) she replied with, "okay, then after Celeste washes up, we'll go." Must further explain to Lorelai this mysterious concept of "later."

July 1, 2009

[Adrianne]: This kid has a hard time entertaining herself. Every day during Celeste's nap, Lorelai's in my face as much as possible. Today, she was drawing "snakes/jump ropes/swing" etc. on her Magnadoodle pad, then insisting on showing me each and every single one--all while I was working on the computer.

July 2, 2009

[Nathan]: Lorelai is a brave girl, in that she loves watching "scary" movies.  Films like "The Last Unicorn" or "The Spiderwick Chronicles," which we have warned her are kind of scary, don't faze her a bit.

She also loves to watch me as I play games on the computer.  Lately, we've been playing "Prince of Persia," and between her admonitions to find the "big scary monster" and rescue the princess, she advises me to be careful as I navigate the Prince through each series of leaps and jumps.

July 4, 2009

[Adrianne]: Yesterday, we went out to lunch. Lorelai exclaimed, "We're going to Taco Bell? That means it's my birthday!" Also, while there, she pointed to an overweight man and loudly said, "I don't like that guy; he's a mean guy!"

Today was a good holiday. We went to Denny's for breakfast with Grandma Barrett. In the afternoon, we went swimming and afterwards had a BBQ with the Nielsens (their oldest son is Conner, one of Lorelai's best friends) and some of their friends and neighbors. We all had a blast.

July 5, 2009

[Nathan]: Lorelai's Sunbeam teacher was not at church today.  The first time that happened earlier this year, she threw a fit that lasted two hours (and told us later that she hated Sister Billings, the substitute.) She's gotten better. Today, once she figured that her teacher, Sister Fisk, was not coming, she tromped over to the other Sunbeam class and climbed into the lap of the other teacher. Lorelai really likes her teachers.

July 6, 2009

[Adrianne]: Here's Lorelai's version of the day: "Daddy, when I get 8 years old, I'll be baptized.  But I have to put on a white shirt first.  And I have to get all the way under the water.  I hope that all the fish won't eat me. And Daddy, when you see a monster, you have to pick up your sword and fight it all the way!"

Note: "All the way" is Lorelai's preferred fighting technique. For example, watching Daddy play video games: "Daddy, you fight the boss monster! And you fight him all the way!"

July 7, 2009

[Adrianne]:  The heat must be getting to Lorelai: this is the 3rd day in a row that she's abruptly fallen asleep late in the afternoon. Today, she stuck her head under the computer desk and was out cold in 2 minutes.  Luckily, I was able to wake her up shortly thereafter.


July 8, 2009

[Adrianne]:  Another day, another late-afternoon nap. I wonder if Lorelai is having a growth spurt.  At 3:30, she informed me she was taking a nap, and she quietly crept into her room and did just that.  I had to wake her up at 5:00, and she wasn't happy about that. In relationship news, Lorelai continues to inform her good buddy Conner Nielsen that "we need to get married so I can be a mama." My pregnancy has gotten Lorelai a little obsessed with the whole "motherhood" concept.


July 9, 2009

[Adrianne]: Every night when we read scriptures, Lorelai lets loose with a garbled monologue when it is her turn. Among all the nonsense words, we can make out "Jerusalem," "Laban hurting people," and even "it came to pass." Or she goes into her Resurrection Monologue: "Bad people got Jesus and they do bad things. And Jesus hurt and he died. And Jesus came back. Mary is so happy. Jesus loves to come back."


July 11, 2009

[Adrianne]: At Rachel Pixton's baptism today, Lorelai leaned so far forward over the baptismal font I was afraid she'd topple in at any moment. At the luncheon afterwards, Lorelai ate watermelon--one slice--then ran off to play for a couple of hours. When we told her it was time to go, she burst into tears and said "But I need to eat! I'm HUNGRY!" She ate one cookie and more watermelon. Then we packed her into the car screaming and drove off.  Sigh.

July 12, 2009

[Nathan]: Lorelai burrows when she sleeps. We tuck her in like normal--under blankets, head on pillow, etc.  However, when we check on her on our way to bed, she is often under her pillows, under her stuffed animals, head shoved into the corner, no part of her body visible.


July 13, 2009

[Adrianne]: As we prepare for our trip to Colorado later this month, Lorelai tells us "When we get to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we'll get lots of presents under the Christmas tree!"  Hmmm. Her seasons are a bit mixed up. Also, an afternoon storm blew our plastic pool around outside and Lorelai was very alarmed. She doesn't like things to move out of their place.


July 14, 2009

[Adrianne]: At the pool today, we were sitting on our beach chairs when a big beetle with green wings decided to harass us. It circled several times around Lorelai, finally landing on her back before I found courage and swatted it away. As can be expected, Lorelai was screaming frantically the whole time at the "giant bug." It made most pool patrons turn their heads, doubtlessly thinking she was in danger. It was hilarious and sad at the same time, to see Lorelai reduced to tears by a beetle. She soon after re-entered the pool, to "wash off" the bug's touch.


July 15, 2009

[Nathan]:  Momma was saying our evening prayer tonight.  Lorelai was sitting on my lap. In the middle of the prayer, she whispers to me "I love you, Daddy." I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek in response and turned my attention back to the prayer.  A few seconds later, I felt a sweet, soft kiss on my own cheek. It was a special moment between just the two of us.


July 16, 2009

[Adrianne]: Today, we started "refurbishing" the appliance box our new washer arrived in. After buying some paint and brushes from Walmart, Lorelai and I sepnt part of our afternoon in our (really hot) garage, covering a big cardboard box with pink paint. I made Lorelai wear her kitchen bib, but she was very excited to participate, despite the heat. She splattered paint over the box, saying, "This is so pretty! I love to paint! I love helping!" and the like, over and over. Of course, she eventually got bored and left me to finish the job myself, but it was great fun to do a project with my daughter. A fun bonding experience, albeit a short one.

July 18, 2009

[Adrianne]: Today I found out that the preschool I had hoped Lorelai could attend no longer exists.  Lorelai cried a little when we told her, but got over it quickly. I wish I had that resilience; I've been worried about what to do about our daughter's schooling. She might have to settle for dance lessons, for now.  This is going to take some thought.


July 19, 2009

[Nathan]: Yesterday at the swimming pool, Momma was pulling Lorelai on the noodle. The noodle slipped out of Lorelai's hands and for two or three glorious seconds, our daughter kept herself afloat, even swimming a few feet towards Momma. It scared Lorelai half to death, but we tried to let her know how proud we were.

[Adrianne]: Lorelai and I had many odd conversations together this afternoon while Daddy was sleeping--one of which involved her saying that if I killed her, she would come back as a dragon and breathe fire on me. Her imagination sure is kooky sometimes.

July 20, 2009

[Adrianne]: Lorelai's got a weird, video game-esque concept of death.  While watching Harry Potter 4 today, she started asking where Harry's parents were. While I kept telling her they were dead or that they "were not coming back," she kept insisting that all Harry had to do was "give them some medicine and then they'll be all better" and other such sentiments.  She refused to believe that people can't come back from the dead.  Maybe she just has a REALLY strong testimony of the resurrection?


July 21, 2009

She's starting to sing along to music now, even if it's just a few words from the chorus of a song. She loudly sings a bunch of nonsense words when we sing hymns at church, and tonight, she was able to sing along for several snatches of melody from a variety of Disney tunes. Lorelai is becoming a songstress. It was fun to sing with her.

July 22, 2009

Lorelai has gotten very attentive over our new baby.  Every time she or Celeste rough-house with me, or climbs all over me, or even just sits on my lap, Lorelai always asks "Is the baby okay?" or "did we hurt the baby?" She constantly reminds us all that the baby is not big or strong enough to come out yet, and got worried at my last OB check-up that the doctor was going to take the baby away. And sometimes, when we're talking too loudly, she even shushes us and whispers, "Shhh, the baby is sleeping."

July 27, 2009

[Nathan]: It's been neat watching Lorelai interact with her cousins this week. I was never particularly close to my cousins, but I hope Lorelai can be friends with hers. Yesterday, they played lawn bowling with Grandma, picked carrots with Grandpa, and played together with a knights and castles play set.

[Adrianne]: I think Lorelai is slowly but surely getting over her water fears. Grandma and Grandpa set up the big inflatable kids' pool today and Lorelai scampered in it for hours. Her older cousins, Abby and Elaine, flung themselves in willy-nilly, repeatedly soaking Lorelai from top to bottom, and at one point, Grandpa broke out the hose and sprayed everyone. Through it all, she remained in good spirits, giggling and playing without cease. This, combined with her "washing her own hair" in the bathtub (that is, dumping cups of water on her head), gives me hope that she'll be ready next summer to really learn to swim.

July 28, 2009

[Adrianne] Yesterday morning, we drove to Bellevue Park, where we played on a playground, rode a train, and visited a petting zoo with Uncle Ryan and cousin Cameron. We had pizza afterwards, then played a game at Ryan's house. It was lots of fun, made no less so by some of Lorelai's reactions. Our route to the park took us across the Cherry Creek Dam Road. Daddy said to Loreali that we'd be "driving up high in the air."  Lorelai got nervous immediately and informed us that "our car can't fly.  Only Harry Potter's car can fly. This car can only drive." She required a little more calming down after that.

Lorelai is also pretty bad with names sometimes. Despite spending all morning with Cameron, she ignored him most of the time, calling him "that boy," or even "Ryan." After lunch, we told her were were going to Cameron's house and she tearfully replied, "No, I want to go to Ryan's house!"

One more note: The weather so far has been cloudy and rainy most of this vacation.  In other words, wonderful.

July 29, 2009

[Nathan]: We spent the evening at Aunt Kelli's house up in the Colorado mountains. I was holding Nolan, who was freshly bathed. I said, "Nolan smells good." Lorelai responded, "No, Daddy, don't eat him."

[Adrianne]:  Lorelai had another big milestone today: she peed in the wild! We hiked Castlewood Canyon today, and before we reached the end of the trail, Lorelai had to "go." Necessity intervened, and we went aside to a nearby patch of grass and weeds while I attempted to teach her the basics. It wasn't pretty, in fact it was a little messy, but the job got done.

July 30, 2009

[Adrianne]:  Our kid likes getting her picture taken. She also liked to see pictures that have just been taken of her. Thank goodness for digital cameras. This proved the case today, both after our luncheon with Kim Bedford, and after our family pictures in my parents' backyard. She always scampers up to the photographer, saying, "I wanna see!" over and over, then grinning at all the new photos. Ahh, the vanity of children.

Aurora Just Turned 4

My older girls finally finished their holiday break and went back to school on January 13th. So, the house has gotten a little quieter again...for now. However, last week did have one big milestone that everyone had to celebrate.

Aurora, my beautiful friendly firecracker of a youngest daughter had a birthday. My "baby girl" is now four years old! Besides making me feel pretty darn old, this birthday was a good opportunity to look at my girls and see how big, mature, and sweet and kind they are all becoming. My heart is full when I think of all the blessings I have received in my life (deserved or not), and my girls are three of my biggest blessings by far.

Out of all my girls, Aurora is probably the most like me in terms of temperament. She feels intense emotions (and isn't afraid to express them); she likes things to go her way; she is a neat freak and can be fastidious (especially with regards to personal cleanliness; she hates having dirty hands!); she is very competitive and hates to lose at anything; and she has a smart mouth that can get her into trouble on occasion (and has made her big sisters cry on more than one occasion). I feel guilty at times for burdening her with some of my personality traits that will undoubtedly morph into neuroses in her teenage/adult years.

Now she has all the Jake And The Never Land Pirates toys she will EVER need!

 However, my sweet little girl has many other qualities that round her out. She is the most affectionate member of the family, and is not shy about giving out kisses and hugs (of course, she is also not afraid to give out affectionate "punches" to her sisters; she's quite a bundle of contradictions, she is!). Aurora may sometimes start fights, but she is also good at ending them...she often acts as "peacemaker" between other members of the family. When there are bad feelings, she makes sure to make every party feel loved and respected, and that goes a long way in resolving our conflicts. She loves to dance when music is playing, and run when there's a large field in front of her. She loves to be alive, and to feel alive. That enthusiasm is contagious and the rest of the family feels it often. She is also a good and loyal friend, who loves opportunities to play games and talk with other cute little girls.

Such was the case last Friday night, when Aurora invited her best friend Shelby to our family birthday dinner at Peter Piper Pizza. Shelby's whole family came along for the ride, so it ended up being a pleasant night of pizza and games (well, as pleasant as a dining experience at Peter Piper Pizza's can be; it was surprisingly not crowded when we arrived, and the noise level was a lot lower than we expected! Delightful).

At the end of the night, Aurora was surprised with a birthday present from her buddy:

So cute!

Aurora is very attached to Shelby. So much so that she often gets sad when they can't hang out more. Aurora has had a hard time adjusting to her new Primary class in church, because she and Shelby are no longer classmates. The leaders of Primary (wisely) decided that Shelby and Aurora needed to be in separate classes for now, because their love for one another would lead to more squealing and talking and dancing and playing than would be reverent...or controllable by any Sunbeam teacher. Since they both became Sunbeams in January, Aurora has spent much of her time in Primary crying tears of bitter loneliness. Thank goodness she has a patient, understanding Primary teacher that is helping her learn to love Primary for its own sake.

Seeing Aurora enter the Primary program at our church (now all three of my children are in Primary) is another reminder of how grown-up they all my kids are getting. In our church, children enter the Primary program if they are three years old at the beginning of that calendar year. This means that technically, Aurora is one of the oldest kids in her class (comparatively speaking, Lorelai & Celeste were much younger when they entered the Sunbeam class (the class for the youngest kids). Even so, finally having my youngest daughter in Primary suddenly ages her so much more in my eyes; every day she is feeling more and more like a "kid" and less like a "baby." That's a very bittersweet feeling to have.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful sweet Aurora. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go cuddle with my children before they get too big and old.

How We Spent Our First Weeks of 2014

Our charter school gives its students a three-week Christmas break. I love it! It's a wonderful excuse to lounge around the house being useless and having fun with family. There is one drawback to this extra-long break, though: if Christmas falls early on in the break (as it did this year), there can be a whole lotta dead space on the other side of the break to fill. Those Christmas toys do start to look a bit boring after a while!

Luckily, we managed to venture out of our house a few times and have fun in the latter half of our break. Our friends the Powells (their son Hyrum is one of Lorelai's best friends) invited us over for New Year's Eve. Last year, we had the Powells come over to our house for fun, games and fireworks, and it was great fun. They decided to return the favor this year...they'd recently moved into a bigger house that could contain all our revelry! This was to be our first visit there.

The bad news? Their house is now one town over from us (they now live in Vail, AZ), and they're not within our LDS church stake boundaries anymore. Their kids will all also be transferred to another school soon. Boo! While we are happy they have a more comfortable place to live (they have six children, and their previous house was only half the size of ours!), we are a little sad it is so much further away. Hopefully we can make an effort to stay in close contact with them over time.

We had a great New Year's Eve with the Powells. We played one of Nathan's new Christmas board games (Castle Panic, a cooperative game in which everyone defends the castle from approaching monsters!). We also played the party classic Apples To Apples Jr. (this was Lorelai's Christmas present) and another party game called Quelf, which involves every player to do demeaning and embarrassing things in the name of winning. As you can imagine, the kids loved that game and the adults (being sober) were bemusedly tolerant of it.

We also had a nice dinner (ribs, mmm!), and we set off some fireworks as well in their big backyard. All the kids watched from the porch or trampoline, and there was much rejoicing (yaaay...). 

When midnight finally rolled around, only Lorelai remained awake out of our girls (Celeste made it to 10:30 though...she'll get there one of these years!). We told her that at midnight on New Year's Eve, you were supposed to give someone a kiss. She ended up chasing Hyrum all over the house, but I'm not sure she ever got a kiss from him! Hyrum was very determined to avoid it. Ah, the joy of the "cooties" phase. Not long after, we loaded up our sleepy kiddos into the car and headed home, prepared to sleep away New Year's Day.

We still had our annual New Year's Day breakfast (monkey bread, sausage, fruit salad, & juice), but I am happy (embarrassed?) to say that is about all we did for that day! I had hoped to take the girls up to Mt. Lemmon to go sledding sometime during the holidays, but southern Arizona has had a lovely warm winter this year, so there was no snow to be had. Oh well...more time to sit at home in our pajamas, I guess.

On January 2nd, the Christmas break officially ended for Nathan...he had to go back to work! At least he got this awesome late Christmas present from one of his coworkers:

This beautiful hat is not only great for keeping your head warm in the wintertime, it's a reference to one of our favorite shows, Firefly. In one episode, resident tough-guy/mercenary Jayne Cobb gets a goofy knitted hat in a package from his mother. It fits poorly, is crazy-colored, and seems a poor fit for Jayne's persona. Jayne himself loved the hat, and could be seen wearing it in a few episodes thereafter. As another character commented, "A man walks down the street in that hat, you know he's not afraid of anything."

That Friday, we decided to pick Daddy up from work just a little early and go out to eat as a family. First, we had our main dinner at El Pollo Loco, a small chain that specializes in fire-grilled chicken. It's actually quite tasty, but there aren't a lot of them in town, so we don't always make it up to the north side to eat there. On this night, though, we made an exception for two reasons. First, there was a Bookmans right next door to the restaurant; a chance for the kids to use up their Christmas gift cards buying some new books. And second...

...we had a family dinner date at The Melting Pot, which was just a short drive away! The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant, and it can be quite pricey. However, my darling brother Ray and his family sent us a Melting Pot gift card for Christmas, and we thought it would be fun for all of us to try out their chocolate dessert fondue.

The girls were pretty impressed by the burners on the tabletop, and even more so when their fondue started melting all together (they'd chosen the S'mores-flavored fondue, so the chocolate base had marshmallow cream & graham-cracker crumbs added). When it was time to dip the fruits, brownies and treats, they were in heaven!

 

I suppose that after a fun family date night like that, there was nowhere for our winter break to go but down. And it's true we didn't do much of note for the last week of our vacation. All my piano students returned, Nathan was back at work, and Celeste & Aurora both had dance classes again, so in many ways, that week felt more "back to normal" than the first two weeks. We also did get a chance to go to the zoo together on a lovely sunny day:

On one other day, we were lucky enough to go to Grandma Barrett's house and pick fresh grapefruit from her tree in the backyard.

 

We have spent many happy mornings devouring these fruits!

Other than a little more shopping, though, not much else of note happened to us. However, I have a feeling that when life is getting nuts in April or May, I will look back fondly on those slow January days and realize that such days are to be treasured. I'm thankful for the busy times in my life, but I'm also grateful for the down times, too. A little boredom is good for the soul now and again.

Wrapping Up 2013 in 2014, Pt. 4: Our Annual Phoenix Post-Christmas Overnighter

Another family holiday tradition we have been creating for ourselves is a family overnight trip to Phoenix. Counting our trip in 2013, we have stayed overnight there for three of the last four years. We love it! It is a great way to have a little fun in that relaxed, easygoing time between Christmas and New Year's. It is also a nice way to get a visit to the LDS temple in Mesa, and to celebrate Nathan and my wedding anniversary (which is December 27th). Here's how our overnighter went this time, as told in (mostly) pictures.

We got off to a later start than we'd hoped, since we had to spend the whole morning waiting for our minivan, which was in the shop (leaking coolant...ugh). Thankfully, the problem was solved and it didn't financially kick our butts (plus, having the car in the shop for a day and a half meant more time to hang out together as a family post-Christmas, hanging out and having fun together.

We drove up to the Phoenix area as quickly as we could, and we decided to kick off our stay by taking the girls to Makutu's Island, the indoor climbing/sliding/crawling jungle play place that I'd taken them to over the summer. I decided to sit this one out; since Nathan had never been inside it before, and the car needed gas anyway, I spent the next hour hanging out in the car, reading a book and hoping the kids had fun.

Luckily, they had a great time!

Everyone was hungry after all the climbing around, and as luck would have it there was a Buca di Beppo restaurant just a block over from Makutu's Island. Buca di Beppo is an Italian-food restaurant that serves all its entrees "family-style"; you order one or two large entrees and then share them with everyone at the table. The girls split a serving of spaghetti and meatballs, while Nathan and I ate some stuffed shells. Yummy!

Full and warm again, we headed out into the night...specifically, to see the Christmas lights around the Mesa Arizona LDS temple. They put lights up on the temple grounds every Christmas, and it's always great to see them...as well as the beautiful exhibit in the Visitor's Center for Nativity scenes from all around the world.

 

Beautiful Russian Nativity...yay!

We spent the night at a local hotel just a few minutes from the temple. The next morning, my beautiful friend Yulia (she served in the Moscow Mission with me back in the day!) volunteered to watch the girls so Nathan and I could go to an endowment session at the temple. It was the first time we'd been able to go as a couple in a while...and it was also the first time Nathan had seen the brand-new endowment video! As part of one of the temple ceremonies, participants watch a short video detailing the creation of the earth and the Fall of Adam and Eve. This is the first time the video has been updated in more than 20 years (none of the text has changed, but some of the visuals have changed quite a bit). It was a lovely experience, as always.

After the temple date, Nathan and I picked up the kids from Yulia's apartment (we paid her for her services in fancy chocolate; I hope she enjoyed it! We are very fortunate to have friends in the Phoenix area willing to watch our kids while we visit the temple). After grabbing a quick snack to eat, we went to another "fun" spot: the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I took the girls there once about a year and a half ago, and I figured they were due for another visit. Here are some pictures from the museum:

This is an outdoor area for budding "archaeologists," in which they can "sweep dirt" away to find dinosaur bones...

...or footprints.

Panning for "gold" in the same outdoor area

Lorelai had NO IDEA what this typewriter was. Man, I felt so OLD explaining it to her!

Here's the "movie" part of the museum, where the kids inserted themselves into an Old West feature.

Daddy got into the fun too.

We'd walked around for several hours, and now we were all hungry. On our way out of town, we drove through Gilbert, Arizona, and caught our first glimpse of the new LDS temple that is opening up in just a few months.

We weren't able to go inside the building yet (or even park there; the parking lot was closed off), but in just a few weeks we'll be coming back up for the temple's Open House. We are very excited! It will be great to have two temples to visit in the Phoenix area.

These photos were taken out of a moving car. Not too bad, huh?

After that, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rudy's BBQ in Chandler. I am starting to think that we'll come here on every trip to Phoenix...but I wouldn't mind that one bit! Soo delicious, and I don't even like barbecue all that much. After that we headed for home, tired but happy. It is always fun to do a getaway in Phoenix with the family. Maybe this year we will change it up a bit and do a short trip up there in the summertime, as well! It might be fun to see what summer activities are good for the family in Phoenix. Does anyone out there have any ideas?