We've Been on Holiday

That is what they say in Canada and I think it is lovely!
Nate and Peter and I spent a week in Canada mid-July and we loved it. We split our time half in Banff National Park and half in downtown Calgary. It was a very nice break from the Oklahoma heat and the flat brown plains that surround us.

Did it seem like a different country? Yes for a few reasons. *1. There are two official languages in Canada – French and English. So nearly everything is printed in both. Freeway exits were not just “Exit” They were “Exit/Sorte” , at the grocery store most packaging has one front labeled in French and the other front in English. All around us we heard people speaking in French. It was fun.

*2. Like most of the civilized world, they use the metric system. This meant temperatures reported in Celsius (get a jacket – it’s only 18 degrees) , speed limits posted in kilometers per hour (“whoa, we’re going 90 and everyone is passing us!”), and hiking distances in kilometers (this was good for my self esteem as it made it sound like I was hiking much further that I actually did). I had a hard time getting used to it.

*3. The Canadian accent was pretty cool. After just 15 min. off the plane I had already had 5 people say “Eh” to me. They use lovely phrases like “Are you off on holiday?” and say Calgary with a lilt, and have washrooms instead of bathrooms.

And *4. The Canadian Rockies really are AWESOME (as in awe-inspiring, not just cool). The mountains are so tall and rugged. Apparently they are younger than the Utah/Colorado Rockies. And the cooler temps kept everything lush and green. It was beautiful. This awesomeness attracted foreigners from all over the world – Europe, India, the Middle East, China, Japan, America, etc. (although one lady from Ohio talked as though everyone else were the foreigners, not us Americans. Apparently we own the beauties of Canada too.). We loved seeing the fashions, and hearing languages from all over. We got a good chuckle from watching an older traditionally-dressed Muslim woman rinse her dentures in a cold mountain stream.

(and the Beavers there are huge ;0)

We loved visiting our maple-loving neighbors to the North. Thanks Canada

I know Nate will want to give you a full travelog but I thought I would put in my two bits. Look for more info to come soon (with tons of pictures).

Winter Quarters & Omaha

Sorry that we're just now posting about things that happened so far in the past, but we really are going to try to catch up on our blog. It's just been too hot here to do much of anything, even blogging.

Anyway, over the 4th of July weekend we decided we wanted to get away from home and do something fun, so we packed up the car and took off to Nebraska! Okay, so I don't usually think to mention Nebraska and fun together in the same sentence but we sure had a great time. We drove up on Thursday night after work and stayed in Council Bluffs, IA, which is just across the river from Omaha, NE. It was our first time with four kids (of our own) in one hotel room - the first night did no go so well! But after sleeping for a relatively short amount of time we were all up and ready to go explore the sights.

On Friday we went to the Omaha Zoo. It was amazing! We saw a bear about 20 ft. up in a tree, a fish feeding frenzy, a male gorilla on the other side of a couple inches of plexiglass, some lemurs, giant grasshoppers, hair-shooting spiders, and some cute kids. Here are a few pictures:

Eating lunch with the animals.

Some wild animals on a train.

A particularly ferocious animal in a golf cart.

A pride of lions sitting by some statues.

Oh wait, those are the cute kids (and their especially cute mom).

The next day we went to the visitors center at Winter Quarters. That was actually the motivation for our trip.

Each of the last two summers we have lived in Oklahoma, we have gone to Nauvoo. We decided this summer to see a different part of pioneer history. There is not as much to see at Winter Quarters, but it was fun to have the kids dress up and walk around while Talmage pulled his very own 1 ft. high handcart (sorry, no picture - duh, what were we thinking?). We learned that each family coming over from Europe on the ships only got one bunk to share. I don't know how well we would do for longer than it took to snap this shot:

The older kids also got the chance to try pulling a handcart carrying a 400 lb. load. It moved pretty easily on the carpet, but then the sister missionary that was leading us around the visitors center put two small rocks in front of the wheels and had the kids try to pull the handcart again. Even with mom and dad helping, it was pretty hard. I can't imagine pulling a handcart over far more and far larger rocks for far farther (is it okay to say that?).

Near the end of our visit, we watched a movie about some of the hardships the pioneers went through while they were in Winter Quarters. One part of the movie showed a mother kneeling by her baby and crying, and then it showed a grave marker with the words, "Here lies our dear son, Peter." That was a little hard for Leslie!

After the kids had had enough of the visitors center we drove around downtown Omaha (and accidentally got caught in traffic for the Justin Beiber concert that was going on). We found a fun-looking art gallery with a sculpture garden that we decided to explore:

An entire villa formed out of bushes. How cool!

I'm not sure if you're really supposed to let your kids climb on this, but if there's no one to say "no", what else do you say but "yes"?

On Sunday we drove to Lincoln to go to church with my grandpa's sister. Afterwards they had us over for a very delicious lunch! I learned while we were there that she had been the manager of the Nieman Marcus restaurant in Chicago for a while. Who knew? I thought Nieman Marcus only sold diamond-studded broaches and helicopters and things like that. The food was definitely worth a million dollars or so! (Sorry, again, no pictures, but they wouldn't do it justice anyway.)

That evening we drove all the way home in a torrential rain storm and slept wonderfully in our own beds. What a great trip!

Camp Sparkle: destination Bartlesville

Every year my family gets together for a few days to enjoy "Camp Sparkle" (SPARKLE is our family motto, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day). This year we were lucky enough to host everyone at our house so they could meet Peter. They came for Memorial Day weekend and were able to be here for Peter's blessing day. It was so special.
We were only missing my two brothers (one is on a mission and one had just started a new job. We got to have my parents and my three sisters and their families. We had a total of fifteen people here. We loved every minute.
We took in some of the sites around Bartlesville, like WoolARoc, and the Tulsa Zoo, and the Kiddie Park, and downtown Bartlesville. And also had a lot of fun just hanging around the house and yard. The kids explored the creek, caught frogs & crawfish, and picked lots of peas (which grew just in time to share with cousins).
We loved being together. Some of my favorite things were the impromptu variety show on the patio, the adults date night downtown (dinner at the "Two Sisters" with my three sisters!), and watching everyone enjoy the kids.

We had such a great time! We felt so lucky to have the whole family at our house. WE hope they had fun and didn't mind the heat and humidity too much. It was another fabulous Camp Sparkle - we can't wait for next year.

Born of Goodly Parents

Soon after Peter was born we were lucky enough to have our wonderful parents come visit. My mom came just days after he arrived. We were lucky enough to have her stay for a week and a half. (It was especially helpful since Nate had to go out of town for work for almost a whole week in there.) She was such a big help. I could not have done it without her. She took over the house keeping duties while I took it easy and did my best to recover. She cleaned and cooked and took the kids to school and entertained Talmage and held Peter and mostly just loved all of us. We felt really lucky to have her here on Mothers Day, too. Her visit was just what i needed, physically and emotionally. Thanks Grandma 'Chele!
The next week we got to have Nate's parents here for a visit. They made it in time for some fun end-of-school-year events. They were able to attend Morgan's Kindergarten graduation and Emma's ballet recital. It was fun to have grandparents there to support the kids. They were wonderful to have around and so helpful. I could hardly get GrandpaSteve to stop working. He fixed many little projects for us that we just hadn't had time to get around to. It was so nice.

We are so glad they could all come meet Peter when he was so new. Nate and I are so lucky to have such good parents!

About Being Efficient

Being the mother of four take patience, planning, and efficiency. I knew this early on. So when the Dr needed to see Peter just five days after he was born and Talmage was due for his 18 month checkup, i thought i would efficiently combine the two. Now remember it was just days after giving birth and since it was a hard pregnancy it was a very slow recovery.
Except a few things made this visit not so efficient. Like getting there late because i am not yet used to preparing two babies. Like Talmage refusing to leave the play area when the nurse called us back, and running away from me once i did get him out, and repeating this three times - each time squeezing back further between toys and kids and chairs. This made all the other calm, put-together moms in the waiting room start to murmur and wonder to each other if there was some way they could help me. And when the nurse did come pick up Talmage up he started screaming.
The toy trucks in the exam room calmed him efficiently. I got both boys undressed and in dry diapers and then started nursing Peter. (see, efficient change BOTH diapers, then wash, then feed) Except it wasn't so efficient when Peter had his first and only blowout. So now we were both covered in mess and he had to be changed again. Just in time for the nurse to come get us to weigh the boys. I coaxed a nervous Talmage out into the hallway reassuring him it would be fine. I used my happiest Mom voice to suggest "Well put Peter up first to see how big he is!" I thought this would efficiently demonstrate to Talmage that it was fine and fun to be weighed. Except when i set Peter on the scale he started screaming, so Talmage flatly refused to stay on the scale. And rather than let him jump off to his death (that would not be efficient) we skipped the weighing. So now both boys are crying and i cannot effectively calm either one. Finally Talmage decides he will be fine as long as he can bring two huge dinosaur toys to the room with him. Except they are almost bigger than him and he cannot carry them. So now i am herding Talmage, carrying Peter, and carrying a dinosaur. The nurse is kind enough to carry the second dinosaur. Back in the room we happily waited for the doctor. When she came in i thought we would try the Peter first tactic again to prove to Talmage that it really is fine to get checked by the doctor. But Peter started crying again and then his circumsision had to be fixed so then he was really screaming. Talmage had a death grip on the back of my leg and huge eyes wondering what this doctor does to people. But we finally got Peter calmed down and Talmage on the table and things went pretty smoothly until we left and Talmage again tried to escape to the play area. But i just forgot about all the rules of recovery and pick up both boys. Who cares about the "don't lift anything heavier than your baby" rule anyway - my sanity was at stake here. Maybe next time we'll skip the doctor and just do at home care.

"Say 'Ahhh', Peter"

Four Kids is . . .

Four kids is . . .
The following stains on Talmage's shirt after his first and only wearing:
*tootsie roll drool (from the candy i gave him in a desperate attempt to calm him so i could take care of the baby)
*mud drool (from the mud he decided to eat while we sat out in our backyard to try to stay distracted)
*dirty, mucky water (this on his back from going down the rain soaked slide)
and last but certainly not least
*blood (which dripped down from his head, across his eye, and onto his shirt after he fell on the gravel strewn playground)

Four kids is . . .
chaos, but mostly a happy chaos. We are slowly adjusting. I think we are going to make it through these first hard weeks and then i will get back to blogging about all the wonderful visitors we have had.

Here is my new Mothers Day picture. With all four of my lovely children.

Fourth, Yet First - Peter Hinckley King

Well, for everyone who has been waiting (and for those who haven't, too) we had our baby this morning. His name is Peter Hinckley King. He may be our fourth child, but he gets First Place in several ways:

- He was our first baby actually born on his due date (Morgan and Emma were both two days early, and Talmage was a week late). But even if that hadn't happened, he was bound to have a good birthday. How can you not when you are choosing from May Day, Cinco de Mayo, or even May 4 (as Leslie's sister, Holly, put it, "May the fourth be with you")?

- He was our heaviest baby at 7 lbs. 13 oz. (21" long for those interested in statistics). Luckily he still had a small head.

- Peter also wins the prize (if that is the correct word) for the longest hospital labor period, clocking in at approximately 25 times longer than either Emma or Talmage (of course with them, we were only in the hospital for about 15 minutes before they were born). With Leslie's history, we wanted to make sure we got to the hospital in time. We arrived at 11:30 PM last night to have the doctor (who we had called to let him know we were on our way) tell us the baby was still quite high up and that he was going to go home to sleep. Leslie was able to have an epidural, but ended up needing pytocin after her contractions died down. Once she was finally dilated, though, Peter came quickly and was born at 8:30 this morning. As a plus, there was actually a doctor present (although our doctor actually went off call at 7:00 AM).

Well, I'll get on to more of what you are really after: the pictures.








One of the best things was to see how excited Talmage was to see his new baby brother. We'll see how long it lasts!





Talmage was so sweet!